Friday, October 18, 2013

Planning a Party and Refreshing Furniture Hardware

We are excited about Justin and Madison's engagement and are having a party

in their honor so the two families can meet and get to know one another.

So before my parents head off to Florida for the winter I will be

organizing a dinner party celebrating the event.

I wanted to get an invitation that would be a keepsake for the couple

and I didn't have much time to do it. Luckily I found the most fabulous place

right near my shop called the Paper Store. This is not a sponsored post by the way,

I just was thrilled with the options and the professional help I received when

I visited the shop. Lilly, their design gal, showed me how I could select a

template, then pick out all the colors I wanted for the image and the font as well

as tweak font styles. The above image was shown in the

store as a red image with black font. If you know anything about me,

you know red is not a color I use very often.

So I selected a pale greyish blue and paired it with a taupe font. Then the

couple's names were made a bit darker to highlight them.

Lilly showed me backer cards which are heavy stock cards that you can have

your invitation mounted on, and it looked very polished that way,

so I opted for a chocolate brown backer card.

This is just a snippet of the card as I don't really want 400 people showing up

to the party! The most amazing thing was that Lilly did them right in front

of me and I had them within an hour! The price was very reasonable too~

so if you have a special occasion that you would like to make a little more

special, take a trip to the Paper Store and check out their custom invitation section.

I went there thinking they would have all things paper, like scrapbook stuff and

fill in the blank invites, but its really not like that at all. Its more of a boutique

with lots of cool things and a fantastic invitation department.

So stay tuned as I do a little redecorating around the house

for the party. I want to do a little freshening up of our decor and isn't

a party just the thing to make you want to take action?

While I am thinking of freshening up my decor,

you might be thinking the same thing with the holidays rolling around. Take a look at some of your furniture and think about giving it a makeover with easy to use Chalk Paint®! Or just freshen up the hardware by changing it out to silver or brightening it with a gold.

Here is a dresser we are working on right now in the shop. I think it would be a fantastic small size buffet piece in a dining room or even a hall table.

A good before and after is always fun to look at.

You can see all the details this piece has going for it.

My kind of cabinet! I knew it would look great painted,

and we broke out our Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan.

I used Old Ochre for the main part of the cabinet and then highlighted

some areas with a mix of French Linen and Old White.

The hardware was removed this time instead of painted over,

and it was darkened with time and age.

An easy peasy way of reviving your hardware

is a finger tip brushing of Gilders Paste.

Here is the cabinet showing the left untouched and the

right with a swipe or two of German Silver Gilder Paste.

German Silver is one of the many metallic colors you can use for your hardware.

That invitation is just lovely, as is the painted chest. I wonder if you might share some tips on painting techniques when using two colors. How do you avoid over brushing one color to the other? It looks too curvy to tape off. Do you simply use a tiny brush where the two colors meet? Best, Beth C.

A standout amongst the most significant steps in furniture resurfacing is disposing of stains and discoloration from the wood. Provided that you deal with this before you apply another stain, you'll be astonished at how extraordinary the restored piece looks.CAndHHardware.com

You are one amazing woman, Amy! I can't believe that you do everything you do and keep your sanity! lol I always love seeing the way you mix your colors and use different ones for different pieces of furniture. You have truly become a unique artist!

The invitations are truly a mark of your sophisticated taste, my friend.The chest looks like a Marie Antoinette cake! I can see it piled high with cloches filled with petit fours and macarons! Or maybe I'm just hungry? LOL!

I love the two toned painted effect on the dresser. It definitely makes it a timeless piece of furniture that any Country French Lover would love. Next time I'm out antiquing I'll take a second look at those old chest of drawers! :)

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